The Newsroom

Curatorial Text

When we think, how do we envision the world? At the back of our minds, do we see or hear words? Do we hear voices, or do we see images of our thoughts? When we hear a word, an image, do we all see the same image? When we read a word, do we all imagine the same pronunciation of the word in the language of the word? When we imagine a colour, do we all imagine the exact same shade? When we think of art, do we all have the same artistic expression in mind? Even the use of the phrases “visual arts”, “literary arts” or “musical arts” will not yield the exact same appreciation in the actual lived world of the perceiver of the same.

Mutale changes this view with Kalidraw – an abstract language that he has invented which encompassed forms, colour and words. It allows the viewer to explore the artistic creation from the viewer’s own worldview, while also exposing the viewer to an alien experience so they can approach the world with an open mind that allows the viewer to accept the fact that they do not know the other side. In a space where the deliberate creation and development of a language does not receive so much attention, Kalidraw’s roots are deeply inspired by ancient rock art found in several parts of Zambia, namely the Mwankole Caves and Mwela Rocks that Mutale first encountered in Kasama in the late 1990s. In The Newsroom, Kalidraw has been used to reflect the inscrutable nature of news items. Inscrutable? How? The Newsroom asks us: what news? By who? For whom? And why the news?